10 Grammar Disputes that Stirred Up Legal Trouble

Grammar, even when used correctly, already fires up tempers in academic and non-academic circles alike. Make a mistake, though, and sometimes you wind up with far more than the ire of language fascists! Every once in a while, even the most savvy lawmakers, attorneys, and law enforcement officials wind up accidentally committing a grammar, punctuation, or semantic error that results in something potentially messy, if not outright problematic. Usually funny, but sometimes extremely sad, such oversights highlight the sheer importance of paying close attention to what you write when it impacts other people’s lives.

1. Virginia traffic laws consider stopping a school bus as reckless driving, but not passing

   Woodbridge, Virginia’s John Mendez faced reckless driving charges, which would’ve meant a suspension of driving privileges and a year in jail for passing a school bus had his grammar-savvy lawyer Eric Clingan not spotted a missing "at." Because of that one tiny exclusion, the legislation only rendered stopping school buses illegal, not passing them. This led to later alteration in order to ensure the safety of child passengers, rendering the law’s original intent far clearer.

2. All drivers are drunk drivers in New York

   In an attempt to make sentencing even worse for drunk drivers, New York legislatures accidentally set the legal blood alcohol limit as .18 grams rather than .18%. This oversight is significant because that particular number is so infinitesimal, conventional (probably even nonconventional, if those exist) breathalyzers can’t even register it, which, in turn, renders pretty much everyone on the road automatically guilty. Fortunately, Empire State residents avoided disaster when law enforcement officials noted the impossible standard and only went after the .18 percenters out there.

3. Hawaii donates 1.5¢ to cancer research

   Here’s some legislation sure to send many spiraling into rants about the government’s out-of-touch view on the world! Thanks to some unfortunate grammar mishaps, Hawaiian law granted a generous 1.5¢ toward cancer research rather than the $8 million they wanted. As intended, the law would raise taxes on cigarettes by 5¢, with 1.5¢ of that placed in the medical fund per individual cigarette purchased. Failing to include that tiny detail would’ve ultimately screwed over one of the nation’s most worthwhile investments, but thankfully policymakers went back and amended everything to involve the heftier sum.

4. Babies can totally get married in Arkansas

   When setting 18 as the minimum age for marriage, Arkansas politicians accidentally expunged a "not" that meant anyone of any age could wed with parental approval, provided they weren’t pregnant. Concern over whether or not pedophiles and ephebophiles would salivate themselves over the prospect meant many lawmakers wanted to call a special session just to rewrite the law as intended. Instead, they wound up incorporating it into another discussing taxes on natural gas and fixed everything up neatly.

5. Obama requires Amtrak passengers to be locked in a box

   Obviously, the President genuinely preferred it if Amtrak travelers locked their firearms in a box, not themselves. But once again, semantic errors led to some pretty hilarious results, which would easily cause some major human rights issues if anyone bothered to enforce them. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, noticed it and attempted an amendment, only to find out Obama had already signed the erroneous document into law.

6. Public housing went without repair in Hawaii

   Even though the Hawaiian legislature wanted to invest $10 million in repairing nearly 600 public housing units in serious need of some love, grammar problems precluded them from going through with it. Poor wording means these empty spaces that could easily provide shelter for the state’s homeless continue to sit and rot, if not wind up demolished outright. Many public housing and poverty advocates chipped in to rescue some of the units privately, but not all of them survived. Unlike most of the other laws listed here, the results proved less funny and far more tragic once enforced.

7. Canadian corporations go at it over a comma

   An additional comma in a contract between telecom company Bell Aliant and cable provider Rogers Communications managed to embroil the pair in a million-dollar lawsuit. Its Royal Extraneousness meant the difference between the former cancelling its contract with the latter after five years versus whenever it pleased. Bell Aliant’s decision to cut off business ties with Canada’s largest cable company landed in the courts for breach of contract, only to see the legal system take their side when the ambiguous wording came to light.

8. Brooksville, Fla. residents pay thousands of dollars for water

   Way back in 1979, Brooksville residents would’ve watched their water bills skyrocket by tens of hundreds of dollars (in some cases) thanks to the mistaken inclusion of "per unit." Thanks to that accidental addition, both landlords and citizens living in multifamily facilities would’ve wound up in absurd financial trouble had the city not caught the problematic bills in time. Nobody admitted to slipping in the game-changing wording, but thankfully Brooksville’s policymakers refused to see it go into effect and said they’d rectify the situation in the next round of legislation.

9. Trespassing isn’t trespassing in North Carolina

   "Open from dusk to dawn," read a sign leading into a Mt. Airy, N.C. park, leading 11 individuals to take advantage of its offerings, only to wind up facing trespassing charges. An accompanying "closed at dark" notice had managed to disappear, meaning the egregious miswording rendered the accused perfectly innocent. Others reading the same thing did, in fact, dot the park, but that still created quite a legal clutter, and eventually the police decided to simply drop everything. And, of course, fix the problem once and for all.

10. Texas cheerleader doesn’t land on the varsity team and sees her case dropped

    Judges dropped a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by cheerleader Sandra Sanches angry over both missing the varsity squad and hearing other team members calling her a "ho," mostly due to their opinion that no real injustice took place. They also took the time to call out the atrocious spelling and grammar errors committed by her attorneys at Littler Mendelson, citing them as unintelligible and offensive. Particularly the part where they refer to the judges as incapable of processing such a heavy and serious matter. Chances are, the courts never would’ve bothered with the case anyways, but the inability to even read the necessary documents certainly didn’t better her situation any.

Taken From Accredited Online Colleges